Many people today use the services of cosmetic medicine to one degree or another in the hope of preserving their youth as long as possible. If you do not take into account plastic surgery, then even without them, thanks to the services of competent cosmetologists, you can remain young in appearance for a very long time. But external manifestations are only a "symptom" to which the mechanisms of aging of the skin and the body as a whole lead. And recently scientists have figured out how to influence them “from the inside”.
How the mechanism of youth prolongation was discovered
Oddly enough, in order to understand the mechanism of rejuvenation, scientists from Johns Hopkins University studied the hair follicles of mice. The fact is that some species of rodents, even after deep wounds, are able to restore their hair follicles. At the same time, the skin formed at the site of wounds is very similar in its properties to young skin. You and I are deprived of such a "bonus", and in case of a severe wound, after healing, we have a rough scar tissue.
The researchers hypothesized that double-stranded RNA molecules, which are released from damaged cells, are responsible for this process. Next, scientists decided to check whether human cells have such a potential. But first, we need to digress a little from the topic and understand how some of the most popular methods of rejuvenation work.
How to keep youthful
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One of the most popular ways to prolong skin youthfulness at the moment is laser therapy (correction of wrinkles using a special atraumatic laser) and retinoic acid-based preparations (they are believed to restore the cellular framework). So, despite the fact that these methods are widely used in cosmetology, the mechanisms of their work are not fully understood. More precisely, they were not understood until the moment when scientists from Johns Hopkins University began their research.
How does old age medicine work?
In their research, the experts examined skin samples taken from 17 women undergoing laser skin rejuvenation. The patients underwent 2 sampling of material - before and after the study.
It was found that exposure to laser causes the formation of double-stranded RNA molecules (the very ones that allow mice to "grow" their skin) and increases the production of retinoic acid. Moreover, when cell cultures were separately treated with a solution with double-stranded RNA molecules, the production of retinoic acid increased more than 10-fold, and the cells began to resemble young in structure.
Vladimir Kuznetsov